~ Are you not diverted?

Category Archives: books

I’m reading Moby-Dick again. It’s been the book I’ve loved to hate since high school. It was mostly because I felt betrayed by the letdown of whales after the deceptive excitement of Queequeg in the beginning. By the time I got to the middle of the book and happened on seemingly endless descriptions in exhausting detail of fifty kinds of whales, I was miffed.”Where is the STORY?!”

So far, I’m really liking it on my second go round. Of course, I’m only on page 57. Still firmly with Queequeg. I might change my opinion when I get to Chapter LXXIV The Sperm Whale’s Head– Contrasted View, and the next, Chapter LXXV The Right Whale’s Head– Contrasted View. Although… I LIKE whales, so why didn’t I like reading about them?? I guess it was because I felt that fiction should be strictly fiction and not interrupted by non-fiction.

If I end up loving Moby-Dick, then that means I just have Goethe’s Faust to swallow someday. I chickened out recently, postponing the evil day.

Assuming I finish Moby-Dick in a month and read nothing else, I will have read two books in three months. It’s like an identity crisis. I’ve always been the type of person who reads a lot without trying, and loves it. Now I don’t even have a reading log started for 2011. It’s so weird. I guess there are other things that I am besides being just a reader but it was always one of the main things. Now I’m a reader who doesn’t read for fun. I read about half of the assigned book for book club every month and everything else has to do with things I must do. It used to be one of my main ways to relax. I always used to read before going to sleep. And now I can almost sympathize with people who say they honestly do not have time to read when before I didn’t understand how that could be possible. Seriously, this is major.

I finished reading “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck today. It’s the first time I’ve read the book and it was a deeply moving experience. Isn’t it C.S. Lewis who said that it’s a bad book if it doesn’t have bad characters in it? “East of Eden” has nothing but bad characters. It has characters who are aware of the snaking and living roots of good and evil and the consequences of living with our physical and spiritual heritage.

It’s no secret that the book is based on the history of Cain and Abel from the Bible. I wondered if there would be a murder and if I’d feel sorry for Cain. It seems plain in the Bible that Cain, Esau, and the prodigal son’s brother are not meant to gain our sympathies but I confess that I was used to pity those three. After studying the parable of the prodigal son, I no longer feel sorry for the son that stayed home and didn’t seem to be loved by his father. And I get why Cain and Esau were punished and did not have reconciled relationships with God. But, Esau’s cry of “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” is, nonetheless,terrible to read.

Cain/Cal Trask was a thorough mix of good and evil, and just about the only character that Steinbeck allowed to struggle with active awareness against his sin nature. He was one of only two characters that I truly liked. Cal Trask has no excuse, although his reasons are understandable. However, that only partly explains why I pitied the destructive Cal Trask. It’s hard to help it when you have some Cain in you.

It’s been more than a month since I wrote anything. So much for my plans to write faithfully once a week during the credential program and keep track of how it’s going. Ha! I thought the other program I was in was time consuming but it can’t touch this one. The nice thing, though, is that the professors and students are Christians and that we students keep each other accountable to focus on Jesus and not lose our perspectives on why we’re going through the program.

If you’ve known me for not too long, you’ll know that I’ve got some pretty strong opinions on education, credentials, and popular methods. In specifics, the criteria for the first program I was in and the one I’m in now aren’t that different. We’re all meeting the same state standards (TPEs) for teachers. The main difference is the people.

The people in the first program were driving me bananas(table-mates excluded). Now I get to sit in class everyday with 10 awesome people. It’s a really terrific group and I’ve been able to make some friends with “life-long” potential, Lord willing. I love talking with these girls, bouncing ideas around, encouraging each other in the Lord, and being plain old goofy. That’s been the major advantage of switching programs. We can’t wait until this semester is over, though. After a major assessment (TPA- Teacher Performance Assessment) coming up, due on Dec 7th at 4:pm, there is a week of finals, and our celebration outing. Burning the TPA template in our bonfire was definitely mentioned. 😉

My favorite method of procrastination recently, has been debating the nature of Islam on a private forum. Besides that, I’ve been requesting books from the library, looking at their covers, deciding I’m never going to have time to read them, and sending them back. I’ve also concluded that despite loving cleanliness and order, I’m not naturally tidy. All this time I thought I was, but I’ve been assured that I am certainly not. And I have to admit, I should be cleaning up the week’s aftermath right now, but there’s just a few things I have to check online first. lol!

So that’s about it for this post. Nothing that interesting, no major news, and nothing to make you laugh. But whoever is still reading this blog, enjoy the update. :)I was surprised to see that there are still any “hits” after several months of no content to speak of. Thanks, whoever you are.

In Fall ’08 I entered a state school teaching credential program and completed one quarter. I struggled with many things during that period but a feeling of frustration that there was a missing piece somewhere became one of the main themes. All the classes were meant to teach us students to become certified teachers in public (government) schools. There were many professor-led discussions, critical of aspects of government schools, yet always with an underlying loyalty to the system in both the students’ and professors’ minds. Discussions asking questions such as “Why are schools failing? Why aren’t we turning out educated kids?” So many times the classes talked about “problems” with government schools– poor teaching methods, teachers, and curriculum. Antagonistic administrations, lack of money, stupid parents. The list goes on.

I couldn’t understand why we just didn’t fix the problems. I know, it can sound simplistic, but sometimes it is. I especially couldn’t understand the gripes about curriculum, or why so many schools use lousy textbooks when there are tons of great books out there. REAL books. Curriculum that works! I know, because I’ve used it. I learned from books like that. I know lots of other people who have, as well. I’ve read the catalogs that offer such materials. These things are not that hard to find. Why can’t these presumably smart teachers, administrators, and curriculum committees find these books?? And that is just one of the problems. There are solutions out there, but nobody was capable, apparently, of discovering and using curriculum that was glaringly superior and easily found.

During the weeks when I was most frustrated, I happened on a book by John Taylor Gatto called “Dumbing Us Down”. Finally, I got it. I understood why there are so many “problems” with government schools and why no one can find solutions. It was all summed up in one radical thought. A piece of information that sounds like heresy to most who hear it. All the politicians, teachers, and even plenty of parents who are all searching for solutions to all the “problems” will never solve them.

Government schools aren’t failing. They’re doing exactly what they were created to do! And they were not created to educate.

Although a small feeling of frustration remains, I no longer spend hours trying to figure out why people in education don’t just buckle down and do better. They believe in the system. They are loyal to it, and while they will spend their lives criticizing and trying to improve “problems”, they are incapable of questioning the entire system. Criticism is okay from those who trust the government schools and are attempting to improve “their own”. But criticism from those who question the system and say that the schools are not, in fact, failing, but triumphing gloriously, are only heretical lunatics. Ultimately, the only “problem” is that most people think that government schools were created to educate. Once you realize that that is not true, it makes more sense. There is still the whole issue of whether we want government schools to do what they’re doing, but the whole disconnect between a “place of education” being incapable of educating is resolved.

This is a video of a duo speech given in a contest. The rules of the contest state that the duo cannot touch or look at each other. Watch for one of the best comedic interpretations ever of the Lizzy/Darcy dance and then the famous first proposal!

Mom has been packing up the books as we prepare to sell the house we live in now and move to the new house. She found two parodies of popular Christian books- books that are so popular they almost have a cult following. The Mantra of Jabez is a parody of The Prayer of Jabez and Right Behind parodies the Left Behind series. Both of the parodies are side-splitting reading. I haven’t laughed so much over a book in years. And I haven’t even read the originals! Are you vacuum-sealed? Do you still have your apendix? Well, you must be doing something right.

A lot of Christians believe that following Jesus doesn’t mean throwing your brains out the door or renouncing culture, including the pursuit of great literature. (Mushy Christian fiction doesn’t count.) Why Christians Should Avoid the Great Books Like the Plague is a funny parody about reading the great books. Although I don’t agree with the parody, I think it’s pretty hilarious.

1. Are you a sophomore? I sure don’t want to be a sophomore. It could make for some interesting research to find out why there is a sophomore year in high school and college. Or maybe just knowing what “sophomore” means says something about those years in school?

2. This is pretty much the antithesis of popular pedagogy right now.

3. I don’t know what “abecedarian” means. I should look it up. Or, maybe you could look it up and let me know! Then we’ll both be smarter. Unless you knew already. Which could be an interesting story. How did you know what that word means?

Montaigne speaks of “an abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it.” The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their ABC’s, cannot have read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books. They are, as Alexander Pope rightly calls them, bookful blockheads, ignorantly read. There have always been literate ignoramuses who have read too widely and not well. The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all sophomores. To avoid this error– the error of assuming that to be widely read and to be well-read are the same thing– we must consider a certain distinction in types of learning. This distinction has a significant bearing on the whole business of reading and its relation to education generally.

In the history of education, men have often distinguished between learning by instruction and learning by discovery. Instruction occurs when one person teaches another through speech or writing. We can, however gain knowledge without being taught. If this were not the case, and every teacher had to be taught what he in turn teaches others, there would be no beginning in the acquisition of knowledge. Hence, there must be discovery– the process of learning something by research, by investigation, or by reflection, without being taught.

Discovery stands to instruction as learning without a teacher stands to learning through the help of one. In both cases, the activity of learning goes on in the one who learns. It would be a mistake to suppose that discovery is active learning and instruction passive. There is no inactive learning, just as there is no inactive reading.

This is so true, in fact, that a better way to make the distinction clear is to call instruction “aided discovery”. Without going into learning theory as psychologists conceive it, it is obvious that teaching is a very special art, sharing withonly two other arts– agriculture and medicine– an exceptionally important characteristic. A doctor may do many things for his patient, but in the final analysis it is the patient himself who must get well– grow in health.The farmer does many things for his plants or animals, but in the final analysis it is they that must grow in size and excellence. Similarly, although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student himself who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in his mind if learning is to take place.

Although it is a solemn piece and about death, this poem is far from sad. It is incredibly beautiful and has been haunting me since I first heard it a few weeks ago. I like it read aloud- slowly and quietly.

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou are not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill mee;
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou are slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die.

Most of the female lifeguards at the pool were reading the Twilight series this summer. The book covers were appealing but I did not read them because they were modern books about vampires and that seems like a good reason to be cautious. I forgot all about the Twilight mania until the day I got really irritated with the Facebook flair application.

Almost every piece of flair was swooning over this Edward Cullen guy and somebody Black. “Who cares?!? And who are these people??” I thought they were actors or something. Mostly, I was just irritated that the flair had turned into mindless drivel about people I did not even recognize. (You might protest that flair was always mindless drivel, even prior to the Cullen/Black invasion, but that is not so. There are some gems of intellectual genius on flair. You just have to look.) Oh, and every piece of flair said the same thing: “I heart Edward Cullen” or “Edward Cullen is way better than whoever-it-is Black”.

Finally, I figured out that these Cullen and Black characters are from the Twilight series. I also learned that nearly every teenage girl (and many a lot older) are practically drooling over the books. And a movie based on the first book in the series was just released. Apparently you either love the books or can’t stand them.

If you love the books, have fun getting offended by reading I want to beat Edward Cullen with a stick. If you can’t stand the books you’ll have even more fun. Did you know that “Bella is Rendered Speechless by Edward’s Beauty or Touch 17 times?”